WINCHESTER: Hearing opens for Marines accused of double murder

Investigators reveal details of the crime in testimony

FRENCH VALLEY -- A U.S. Marine sergeant and his wife were both
bound with red duct tape and shot in the head multiple times in
their Winchester home according to testimony offered Friday during
a preliminary hearing for the four U.S. Marines accused of the
double-murder.

Marine Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, and his wife, Quiana Faye
Jenkins-Pietrzak, 26, were found dead in the family room of their
Bermuda Street home on the morning of Oct. 15, 2008.

All of the defendants in the case are U.S. Marines: Lance Cpl.
Emrys John, 18; Lance Cpl. Tyrone Miller, 21; Lance Cpl. Kesaun
Sykes, 21; and Pvt. Kevin Cox, 21. Each has been charged with
multiple felonies including two counts of first-degree murder, rape
by foreign object and special circumstance allegations of multiple
murder. John has also been charged with personally using a firearm.
Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if the men
are convicted.

During Friday's court proceedings, the Marines were represented
by seven defense attorneys, two for each defendant except for
Sykes, who had one attorney. The defense attorneys primarily
concentrated their attacks on investigators' methods and
techniques, including the way shoeprints at the scene were recorded
and how authorities connected them to basketball shoes belonging to
two of the defendants.

At the end of the preliminary hearing, which is scheduled to
wrap up in early May, a judge will decide whether the defendants
will stand trial and on what charges.

The men were all assigned to Camp Pendleton and two of them,
Miller and John, worked directly for the Marine they are accused of
killing.

Jan Pietrzak served in Iraq from July 2005 to February 2006, and
the couple had just married in August, moving into their new home
about four months prior to the slayings.

Riverside County sheriff's Investigator Ben Ramirez, a 15-year
veteran of the department who was one of the lead investigators,
testified Friday about what he saw at the home after the Pietrzaks'
bodies were discovered.

Ramirez said Jenkins-Pietrzak was nude and slumped against a
couch, her legs splayed; on the floor in between her legs was a
vibrator.

Ramirez said Pietrzak was on the ground near his wife, his body
clad only in boxers and a T-shirt.

Both had their hands bound with tape and it looked as if
Pietrzak's hand had been tied to his wrapped ankles at some point,
the investigator said. Jenkins-Pietrzak's eyes were covered with
the same red tape, he noted.

In addition to the bodies, investigators found bullet holes in
cushions on the couch, possible evidence of someone using a cushion
to muffle the sound of a gunshot, Ramirez said.

Police have said the phrase on the wall was an attempt to throw
investigators off the trail of the Marines, who are all black, by
making it seem as if the Pietrzaks, a mixed-race couple, were
killed by racists.

In the kitchen, police used fingerprint dust to dust the
shoeprints that were faintly visible on the tile, the investigator
said, adding that those prints showed three different types of
shoes.